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[[Wakefield Cathedral]] is a [[14th century]] [[parish church]], which was restored by Sir [[George Gilbert Scott]] in the [[19th century]]. There is also a 14th century Chantry Chapel, one of only four remaining in England{{Specify|date=January 2007}}. The chapel tops a buttress on a bridge over the [[River Calder]].
[[Wakefield Cathedral]] is a [[14th century]] [[parish church]], which was restored by Sir [[George Gilbert Scott]] in the [[19th century]]. There is also a 14th century Chantry Chapel, one of only four remaining in England{{Specify|date=January 2007}}. The chapel tops a buttress on a bridge over the [[River Calder]].


The town was a centre for [[cloth]] dealing and had its own [[Piece Hall]]. For much of the 18th and 19th century, Wakefield had an unusually diverse economy for Yorkshire, but it was a much smaller town during that period. Textile mills grouped around the River Calder. A large glass works in the east of the city was a large employer. There were several collieries around the outskirts of the town, and engineering works in the centre that had strong links to mining. The Eastmoor area was once home to large brickyards. Its position as the seat of local government for the West Riding also provided many local jobs in administration.
The town was a centre for [[cloth]] dealing and had its own [[Piece Hall]].

In the early 20th century, large areas of council housing were built on the fields that surrounded the town, and the formerly independent villages of Sandal Magna, Belle Vue and Agbrigg became suburbs of Wakefield. As many of the new council estates depended on the expansion of coal-mining for their employment, the National Coal Board eventually became Wakefield's largest employer. The city was also surrounded by pit villages, but also by the old [[mill town]]s of Batley, Dewsbury and Ossett to the west.


Wakefield is known as the capital of the [[Rhubarb]] Triangle, an area famous for its early forced rhubarb. Wakefield is one of the points of the triangular area with the neighbouring towns of [[Morley, West Yorkshire|Morley]] and [[Rothwell, West Yorkshire|Rothwell]] as the other two. In July 2005 a statue was erected to celebrate this facet of Wakefield.
Wakefield is known as the capital of the [[Rhubarb]] Triangle, an area famous for its early forced rhubarb. Wakefield is one of the points of the triangular area with the neighbouring towns of [[Morley, West Yorkshire|Morley]] and [[Rothwell, West Yorkshire|Rothwell]] as the other two. In July 2005 a statue was erected to celebrate this facet of Wakefield.

Revision as of 19:55, 21 February 2007

For other uses, see Wakefield (disambiguation).

Template:Infobox England place

Wakefield
The Town Hall, Wood St.

Wakefield is a city by the River Calder, located within the City of Wakefield metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England. Its population was 76,886 in 2001, of which 1,657 were prisoners.[specify] The boundaries of the actual city are subject to a wide range of definitions[1], and it is not clear what definition the census was using in its calculations.

Wakefield was dubbed the "Merrie City" in the Middle Ages.

Etymology

The name "Wakefield" is often said to derive from "Wacca's field" - the field belonging to Wacca. However, it is more likely to have evolved from Old English wacu, meaning "a watch or wake", and feld, an open field in which a wake was held.[2] In the Domesday Book of 1086, it was listed as Wachefeld.[3]

History

In 1460, during the Wars of the Roses, the Duke of York was defeated near the city (then a town) in the Battle of Wakefield at Sandal Castle. The ruins of the castle can still be visited, and are a popular walking spot for locals.

Wakefield was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1848 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835.

Wakefield Cathedral is a 14th century parish church, which was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the 19th century. There is also a 14th century Chantry Chapel, one of only four remaining in England[specify]. The chapel tops a buttress on a bridge over the River Calder.

The town was a centre for cloth dealing and had its own Piece Hall. For much of the 18th and 19th century, Wakefield had an unusually diverse economy for Yorkshire, but it was a much smaller town during that period. Textile mills grouped around the River Calder. A large glass works in the east of the city was a large employer. There were several collieries around the outskirts of the town, and engineering works in the centre that had strong links to mining. The Eastmoor area was once home to large brickyards. Its position as the seat of local government for the West Riding also provided many local jobs in administration.

In the early 20th century, large areas of council housing were built on the fields that surrounded the town, and the formerly independent villages of Sandal Magna, Belle Vue and Agbrigg became suburbs of Wakefield. As many of the new council estates depended on the expansion of coal-mining for their employment, the National Coal Board eventually became Wakefield's largest employer. The city was also surrounded by pit villages, but also by the old mill towns of Batley, Dewsbury and Ossett to the west.

Wakefield is known as the capital of the Rhubarb Triangle, an area famous for its early forced rhubarb. Wakefield is one of the points of the triangular area with the neighbouring towns of Morley and Rothwell as the other two. In July 2005 a statue was erected to celebrate this facet of Wakefield.

Recent history

Coal-mining was historically a large employer, although it never dominated Wakefield in the way of nearby towns such as Castleford and Hemsworth. By the time of the 1984 Miners' Strike, all the pits in the city had already been closed, but there were 15 pits in the rest of the district and demonstrations in support of the strike frequently took place in the city. The city suffered a double blow through the closure of local pits and the abolition of West Yorkshire County Council, which had been based in Wakefield; many local people had been employed in administration ever since the establishment of the old West Riding council. The city long remained a depressed area, but fortunes have risen recently and unemployment is now around the national average.

Transport

There are two railway stations in the city centre, Wakefield Westgate (trains mainly to Leeds, Doncaster, Sheffield and stations on the East Coast Mainline, including the terminus at London King's Cross) and Wakefield Kirkgate (trains mainly to Barnsley and Castleford) - as well as the "Sandal & Agbrigg" station on the East Coast Mainline, just to the south of the main Westgate station. Wakefield Westgate station is maintained by Great North Eastern Railways (GNER), who operate the Leeds-London service, and is manned with facilities such as secure car parking, ticket office and shops. In contrast, Wakefield Kirkgate station is unmanned, and there is no ticket office or machine. Most of the windows at the front of the station are boarded-up, and the pub opposite, "The Wakefield Arms", has stood derelict for the last 3 years[verification needed]. Kirkgate station is operated by Northern Rail.

Following the success of the FreeCityBus in Leeds, and the FreeTownBus in Huddersfield, it has been announced that a six month trial of a Wakefield FreeCityBus will begin at the end of April.[4] The route will connect key locations in the city including the bus station, railway stations, retail parks and shopping areas. The service will run every 10 minutes between 7:30am to 7:00pm, Monday to Friday and 8:30am to 5:00pm on Saturdays.

Prisons

Wakefield is less celebrated but nevertheless well known for its prisons. Wakefield Prison is a maximum security prison, one of the most secure in Britain, and has included many notorious inmates including Ian Huntley, Harold Shipman (Harold Shipman is the third serial killer to have been found hanging in his cell in the last decade) and Charles Bronson. Wakefield was originally built as a house of correction in 1594. The current prison was designated a dispersal prison in 1966 (longest of remaining original group). It is now a lifer main centre with the focus on serious sex offenders. The current governor is David R. Thompson, Director-General elect of Her Majesty's Prison Service.

The nearby HMP New Hall is a multi-use prison for women, young female offenders and girls on Detention and Training Orders (DTOs).

Council Housing

Wakefield is distinctive in having had an unusually high amount of council housing[citation needed], and in 2004 when tenants voted overwhelmingly to transfer the entire housing stock to a new registered social landlord (called Wakefield District Housing) it became the second largest stock transfer in British history[citation needed]. The city of Wakefield itself contains seven council estates and was almost 50% council-rented, whilst the wider Wakefield district also includes nearby towns such as Pontefract, Castleford, Hemsworth, Horbury and Ossett. The city's largest estate is Lupset, in the west; the others are called Flanshaw, Plumpton, Peacock, Eastmoor, Portobello [known affectionately as "bella"] and Kettlethorpe.

Culture

Music

Indie groups The Cribs and The Research are from Wakefield.

The Wakefield Cathedral Choir consists of boys, girls and men who perform at religious services, concerts and recitals at the cathedral. Choral Evensong with the boys is on Tuesdays and on Thursdays the boys are joined by the men. The girls perform Evensong on Friday evenings and Parish Eucharist on Sunday mornings. The boys and men also sing at Solemn Eucharist and Evensong on Sundays. The choir, directed by Jonathan Bielby assisted by Thomas Moore, is one of the most successful cathedral choirs in the UK, but paradoxically has also been described by many as 'Wakefield's best kept secret'. The choir have had appearances on BBC 1's 'Songs of Praise' and BBC Radio 3's 'Choral Evensong'.

Famous songs regarding Wakefield

  • "Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush" - about Wakefield Gaol (prison)[5]
  • "The Grand Old Duke of York" - commonly attributed to be written about the battle of Wakefield, referring to Richard, the Grand Old Duke (of York).

Sport

Wakefield is known for its rugby league club, Wakefield Trinity Wildcats. Formed in 1873, the club has had a chequered history, with their glory period in the 1960s with Neil Fox, Derek 'Rocky' Turner, Keith Holliday and Harold Poynton under coach Ken Traill. They now play in the elite Super League division of the sport.

Wakefield RFC was the city's rugby union club from 1901 to 2004 when the club ceased playing after relegation and lack of funding.

Wakefield F.C. play their football in the Unibond League First Division after their move from the village of Emley in 2001. They played at Belle Vue as tenants of Trinity until the end of the 2005/6 season following their relegation. They have moved to College Grove for the start of the 2006/7 season.

Cricket and amateur rugby league are played in many of the villages around the city.

One other notable team was skater hockey's Wakefield Warriors, which during their short life, were crowned British and European Champions.

Media

Wakefield has its own newspaper, the Wakefield Express, and radio station Ridings FM.

The film, "This Sporting Life (1963)" is about Wakefield and the hard realities of the mines and Rugby League, directed by Lindsay Anderson, written by David Storey and starring Richard Harris.

In June 2005 Wakefield was the scene of the television programme Most Haunted, who hosted a summer solstice special in various locations around the city, including Wakefield Opera House.

Museums and the arts

Wakefield city-centre is host to a small art gallery and a museum. Both the National Coal Mining Museum for England (an Anchor Point of ERIH, The European Route of Industrial Heritage) and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, one of Europe's foremost sculpture parks, are situated nearby.

The Wakefield Theatre Royal and Opera House hosts a variety of performing arts.

Wakefield is also known for the Wakefield Cycle, a collection of 32 mystery plays, dating from the 14th century, which were performed as part of the summertime religious festival of Corpus Christi and revived in recent times.

Parks and historical sites

Festivals

Wakefield hosts an annual Rhubarb Festival to celebrate its historical association as a grower of the plant and consists of various themed tours, talks, exhibitions and markets

Night Life

The area of Westgate was historically held to have the largest number of adjacent pubs in England. The famous Westgate Run or 'Pub Crawl. One of the many traditions generally associated with the famous pub crawl is the compulsory downing of a pint of cider at the Smiths Arms pub, generally in the pub car park.

Famous people born in or near Wakefield

Sister city

Trivia

Location Grid


References

  1. ^ Map of Historical Boundaries
  2. ^ Reaney, P.H. (1964). The origin of English place-names (corrected 3rd pr.). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. pp. pp. 161. ISBN 0-7100-2010-4. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  3. ^ Mills, A.D. (1998). A dictionary of English place-names (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. pp. 361. ISBN 0-19-280074-4. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  4. ^ "Wakefield FreeCityBus". West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive.
  5. ^ The story of Wakefield Prison & the origin of a nursery rhyme
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